


Bubble Trouble

by RockSunner



Series: Lebam AU [8]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Multi, Parallel Universes, Science Fiction, Series Finale, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-05 01:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5356196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockSunner/pseuds/RockSunner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a bubble around Gravity Falls, trapping Bill and his goons, and it's shrinking. Will Bill have to ally with the town against a common enemy? My own version of the series finale. Spoilers for W pt 1 and 2. All characters belong to Alex Hirsch, not me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Trapped

"Alright, can anyone explain to me why, even with our new-found INFINITE POWER, none of us can escape the borders of this STUPID HICK TOWN?" asked Bill.

Bill threw bolts of lightning around the throne room in rage, as his minions cowered.

"There's some kind of force field keeping us in, but who would know how to fix it?" Bill asked. He stared at the golden Stanford Pines he was holding, his eyes flashing with the pages of the Journals. "Hmm. Maybe someone needs to come out of retirement."

Keyhole said, "Bill! Uh, sorry, Boss, but Gideon let the Pines family escape! They're inside Mabel's bubble as we speak!"

Bill laughed. "Buddy, Mabel's bubble is the most diabolical trap I've ever created. It would take a will of titanium not to give into its temptation. Fetch me Gideon and take the rest of the day off. Things just got a little more interesting."

Gideon was dragged before the throne in chains.

"Ah...Ah'm not afraid of you," blustered Gideon.

"Then you're even more of a fool THAN I THOUGHT," said Bill, looming over him. "The only reason you're still walking around and not part of my throne with your fellow felons is that I haven't thought of the most fiendish and painful punishment for you yet."

"Mah Mabel will know ah died a hero for her," said Gideon.

"I doubt it," said Bill. "Once Pine Tree and his buddies succumb to my temptations in her prison bubble, they'll never think to tell her anything."

"They're stronger than you think," said Gideon.

"We'll see... But discussing my prisoners is not why I had you brought here. I find myself trapped by a stupid orange force bubble from invading the rest of this ball of mud. The people most likely to have done it are people with knowledge of the Journals. I'll start with you. Did you set up this containment sphere?"

"Not me," said Gideon. "Ah don't know enough. About all Ah got from Journal 2 was how to use the amulet and how to summon you."

"Figures," said Bill. "I guess I'll have to un-goldify my back-scratcher."

With a wave of Bill's hand, Ford came back to life.

Ford lowered his hands. "So, what's the riddle? Why did the old man do that?"

"Never mind, Sixer," said Bill. "It isn't funny any more."

Ford looked around. "Where am I?"

"My castle, the Fearamid."

"And what have you done to all those people?" asked Ford, pointing at the throne.

"Just a little throne for me," said Bill. "I've always liked the idea of sitting on humans. I was planning on making it a lot bigger, but there's a little something stopping me: a force field around this town. You set this up, didn't you?"

"A force bubble is keeping you contained? Ingenious. I wish I had thought of it."

"Take a closer look at it," said Bill. With that he levitated with Ford out of the Fearamid and right up to the force wall.

Ford touched it. It rippled, but his hand couldn't pass through.

"It appears to be temporal energy. Your one other weakness," said Ford.

"How do I take it down?" Bill demanded.

"I don't know," said Ford. He placed his hand against the wall again. "I can feel it slowly shrinking. If this keeps up, all the matter in this region will eventually be crushed tightly together. No physical beings will survive."

"I'm immortal. I don't need a physical form to stay alive," said Bill.

"That is correct, but you'll be contained in a small space with nothing to do for eternity," said Ford.

"Anything but boredom!" said Bill. "That's the worst."

"You could leave the way you came," said Ford. "Back through the rift."

"I really don't like that idea," said Bill. "But perhaps I need to regroup. You're coming with me, though. I don't trust you not to try to close the rift while I'm gone."

Bill floated up to the X-shaped hole. He tried to go through, but he found the same force still held him back.

"Now what?" said Bill with a touch of desperation in his voice.

"The sky has been this same yellow-orange color from when you first started Weirdmageddon," said Ford. "I think someone anticipated your arrival, and you were trapped from the very beginning."

"How is that possible?" said Bill.

"I'll help you find out, but only on the condition that you free all of the people and undo all of your damage."

"Curse it that I lost my future vision when I took physical form in this dimension, or I wouldn't need any of you," said Bill. "You've got a deal."

* * *

Blendin Blandin appeared near a cliff overlooking the town. Agent Dundgren was standing there.

"Agent D-Dundgren, sir, everything went wrong!" said Blendin. "Bill Cipher destroyed everyone, even the Time Baby. I'm the only one left alive to report back here to our emergency back-up rendezvous space-time coordinate."

The Time Baby appeared with a pop.

"Don't worry," said the Time Baby. "Everything is proceeding according to plan."


	2. Relatives

Bill levitated the whole throne of petrified people to the main street of Gravity Falls. "You want me to un-petrify them, Sixer?"

"Yes," said Ford.

Bill waved a hand, and they all fell into a massive heap.

"Not top of each other! They'll be crushed!" said Ford.

"That was going to be the fun part," said Bill.

With another gesture, they were swiftly and roughly pulled apart.

"What's the big idea?" Manly Dan's oldest son yelled.

"Hold on!" Ford called to the crowd in a commanding voice. "An outside force has put a bubble around this town, trapping all of us including this demon. We have to work together to stop it before it shrinks and crushes us all."

"Why should we listen to you?" asked Lazy Susan. "You seem to be buddies with that monster."

"I heard you were responsible for this mess," muttered a tattooed bar bouncer.

"Let's git him! Git him!" called Mayor Tyler Cutebiker.

"That's my Grunkle Ford!" yelled Mabel. "Listen to him!"

Mabel and Dipper charged in, at the head of a resistance group from the Mystery Shack. They carried a large home-made flag with the words "Take Back the Falls." Behind them were Wendy, Soos, Grunkle Stan, Pacifica, Candy, Grenda, Old Man McGucket, Sheriff Blubbs, a bearded biker, the man who married a woodpecker, a manotaur, the Multi-Bear, a unicorn, and several gnomes.

The incipient mob, faced with a more organized group, settled into silence.

"Yes, listen to me," said Ford. "Bill has agreed to undo all his damage."

"If you're turning people back from stone, what about my wife?" called the woodpecker's husband.

Bill turned the bird back, and she promptly gave her husband a sharp peck on the head.

"Back to normal," said the man with a smile.

"What about Gompers?" Mabel said. "He's become a giant goat. He'll have trouble finding enough to eat that way. Change him back to his normal self."

"You got it, Shooting Star," said Bill.

The ginormous goat was lifted from the distant woods and placed before them, shrinking as it came until it reached human size. Then it transformed into an elderly man wearing a black suit and bow tie. He was still on all fours, but he came stiffly to his feet.

"Who... who is that?" asked Dipper.

"The owner of the fez... my brother!" said Stanley Pines.

He removed the fez from his head, and offered it to man, who took it and put it on.

"Dipper and Mabel, this is your Grandpa Shermie, duly appointed Big Fish of the Gravity Falls branch of the Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel."

"I think I should faint again, dudes," said Soos, and he did.

* * *

While Bill went around the town restoring buildings and disenchanting objects, the Pines held a hasty consultation.

"Good to see you again, brothers," said Shermie. He had a formal, stiff manner.

"And we're glad to meet you, Grandpa Shermie," said Mabel.

"If we ever saw you before, we were too young to remember it," said Dipper.

"I was there when you two were born," Shermie said. "I covered for your great-uncle Stanley when he visited, too. I heard his reasons for impersonating Stanford, and I agreed with him."

"Hmmph," said Ford.

"What happened to you, Shermie?" asked Stan. "You were visiting me here, and then one day you just disappeared."

"Bill tricked me," Shermie said. "I thought he was a friend, and he offered to make me a kid again. It seemed like a great deal, but I didn't know it meant tricking me onto a magical carpet to be swapped into the body of a baby goat."

"My Electron Carpet," said Ford. "I sometimes wondered, in the years I was stuck between dimensions, if leaving it on the floor of my room would cause any problems."

"It sure did!" said Shermie with a snort. "After I was swapped out, Bill took over my body from the goat. He was going to give you some instructions, Stanley, things the Royal Order supposedly needed you to do."

"I was supposed to gather supernatural stuff if I came across it, and to make everything in the Shack look goofy and harmless," said Stan. "I was doing that anyway; it was less trouble."

"That part was real," said Shermie. "Any last minute instructions?"

"Yeah, to recruit a carny operator and give him a gizmo from Ford's stuff," said Stan. "It was supposed to make Dipper miss a ball toss. It seemed harmless. The kid needed some disappointment to toughen him up."

"Grunkle Stan!" said Dipper. "It made me hit Wendy in the eye."

"That sounds like my experimental Friendly Fire device for the Army," said Ford. "It was supposed to make bullets ricochet back on the enemy. But it never worked on anything but thrown projectiles, so I gave up on it."

"Bill wanted that to happen?" said Dipper. "There was something he wanted from it.. But what?"

"I know!" said Mabel. "We stole a time machine so you could get free re-dos!"

"And then we did lots of damage to the time stream, which got that time-travel guy, Blar Blar, in trouble," said Dipper.

"And because of that he must have made a deal with Bill. He got possessed and tricked me into giving him that glass thingy," said Mabel.

"Wait a second, you remember giving him the rift? In the prison bubble it seemed like you didn't remember anything from when you left the house mad at me for wanting to stay with Ford."

"Well, I sorta skipped over that embarrassing part," said Mabel.

"Mabel, you caused the end of the world!" said Dipper.

"I didn't know. It was just some broken thing in your bag, and he said he just needed to borrow it for a minute to make a time bubble so I could have a little more summer. Why didn't you tell me about it, if it was important?"

"Great-uncle Ford asked me not to," said Dipper.

"Why, Grunkle Ford?" asked Mabel.

"I didn't think you or Stan could be trusted with the information," said Ford.

"That was a huge mistake," said Stan. "If anyone's responsible for what happened, it's you."

Ford hung his head, "You're right. But maybe I can still fix it."

* * *

Agent Dundgren said, "I'm glad to see you survived, Time Baby, Sir."

"In a way, I didn't," said Time Baby. "I sacrificed my older self to gain a burst of extra-dimensional energy to free my younger self from the Antarctic ice where I was frozen. Now I can conquer the world sooner, and more easily. My older form will recover in a thousand years, so nothing is truly lost."

"How did you make this all happen, Sir?"

"I tricked the demon with a prophecy that I set up," said Time Baby. "I created time loops that would help him gain power in this world, or so he thought."

"What will happen to the demon now?" asked Blendin.

"I will continue to shrink the time bubble around him until it can fit through the rift, then send him back through, bubble and all. I will then seal the rift and proceed with the conquest of this time."

"W-what about all the people inside?" asked Blendin. "Won't they be crushed?"

"Collateral damage. They don't matter," said Time Baby.

"B-bu M-mabel and Dipper, are m-my friends!" said Blendin.

"Do not question my actions," said the Time Baby. "Agent Dundgren, take him away and put him back in prison. Even though his actions were helpful to me they were still highly disloyal."

"Nooo!" said Blendin.

Agent Dundgren seized Blendin and they popped away.


	3. UFO

The air felt heavy and the ground trembled.

"The collapse is getting worse," said Ford. "We need to take shelter, and I know just the place. There's a UFO buried beneath the town. If we can get its force shields working again we can push back against the bubble."

"I know how to find the entrance," said Dipper. "I'll guide people there."

"That'll take too long," said Ford. "We need to split up and find Bill. He can help us get everyone there fast."

"Do you trust him?" asked Dipper.

"Of course not, but right now he has no choice but to cooperate with us," said Ford. "We're all in the same trap."

Old Man McGucket came up to Ford. "I think... do I know you?"

"Who are you?" asked Ford.

"Seems like we used to work together once... mebbe?" asked McGucket.

"Fiddleford? What happened to you?" asked Ford.

"He founded the Society of the Blind Eye and used his mind-erasing gun too much," said Dipper.

"I've been the town kook for years, livin' in the dump," said McGucket. "But just lately I got me into an underground bunker to hide from the 'pocalyspse. Got too lonely, though, so I came out and found me some survival buddies."

"You poor fellow," said Ford. "I'm so sorry I got you into all this. That accident with the Portal..."

"I don't wanna think about that now," said McGucket with a shudder. "Things is scary enough out here."

"Come with me, and we'll talk on the way," said Ford. "With research, I'm sure I can find a way to recover your mind. But first we have to survive this trap."

"You betcha," said McGucket. "Sure don't wanna be trapped, do we?"

* * *

Dipper found Bill, and soon he had gathered everyone to the buried UFO, and levitated them down to the operational level. Bill also brought his followers from the Fearamid.

Defense droids activated, sensing the high adrenalin levels of the intruders, but Bill swiftly disabled them.

"What now, Sixer?" asked Bill. "Just getting underground won't help. The bubble goes all the way around down here, too."

"We have to repair the ship and get the force shields working," said Ford.

"No problem," said Bill. "I know a lot about this old boat. I even helped wreck it, millions of years ago. I'll just use my phenomenal cosmic powers to replace the parts you took for our Portal, restore others that got broken in the crash, and we can fire this baby up."

* * *

Soon Ford announced. "The shields are up. I don't know how long they can stand the pressure, but we've bought some time."

"What now?" asked Stan. "Who put a bubble around us, and how do we fight them?"

"I suspect the Time Baby," said Bill. "He must have rigged the Prophecy of the Wheel to catch me."

"What's the Prophecy of the Wheel?" asked Dipper.

"I showed it to you once, Pine Tree," said Bill. "Here, look again."

A glowing blue ring appeared in the air around Bill.

"Dudes!" said Soos. "That's the ring we saw in the Dreamscape one time. It glows like a billboard. Hey... Bill-Board. That's funny."

"What does it mean?" asked Mabel.

"After an older prophecy failed, I was looking for a new way to get into this world," said Bill. "One day, this ring image appeared on Pacifier's forehead."

"I'm part time giant," said Pacificer, removing the ring from its mouth so it could talk. "I can pick up on time currents."

"Be quiet," said Bill. "Listening to you got me into this mess, and don't think you're not going to suffer for it."

The Pacifier stuck its pacifier back in its mouth and sucked nervously.

"I studied the ring and realized it was about ten people who could be caught up in a time loop," said Bill. "There was going to be a time agent in trouble, desperate to make a deal. I saw how I could use that to make this place my new playground. "

"What time loop?" asked Dipper.

"You started it, Pine Tree," said Bill, pointing to his glowing ring in the air.

Bill lit up Pine Tree, Ice, Stitched Heart, and Fez Symbol. "There's the boy that wanted a girl, the girl herself, and his rival for that girl. And the guy who rigged the baseball-toss game so the guy couldn't win without meddling in time."

"Sorry about that, Dipper," said Grandpa Shermie.

"I'm an Ice Bag?" asked Wendy. "Weird."

"I guess because you needed ice for your eye after my throw," said Dipper.

Bill lit up Shooting Star and the Llama. "There's the girl who wanted a pig, and her rival for that pig. That set up a conflict that spread damage all over time."

"I didn't win a pig, I won a chicken," said Pacifica. "It pecked my head all the way home."

"On the one timeline when I didn't win Waddles, you did," said Mabel. "I got very upset."

Bill lit up Question Mark. "There's the man who was supposed to keep the time machine safe, and didn't. And all of them were for Blendin to be tricked into a deal, out of fear and desire for revenge."

Bill lit up the Eye in the Pentagram. "There's the boy who had a journal and wanted a girl, but lost both. I tried to use him to keep her safe for me."

"Ah hope Dipper told you how Ah sacrificed myself and my followers to save you, Mabel," said Gideon.

"I, uh... didn't get around to that yet," said Dipper.

"Thank you, Gideon. It still doesn't mean there's going to be anything between us," said Mabel.

"Ah know that," said Gideon.

Bill lit up the Six-Fingered Hand and Glasses. "There is the man who made a portal for me, and was lost in it. And finally, his brother, who wanted him back badly enough to break the world."

Mabel said, "If only we still had a way back in time, we could change all this so it never happened."

Dipper said, "It's really hard to change time loops. Something seems to happen to preserve the same outcome."

Bill said, "It's worse than that; it's almost a time knot. If Blendin hadn't been angry at you and pulled you into Globnar, you wouldn't have dropped a screwdriver in Question Mark's yard ten years ago. By then, Blendin had already made a deal with me to help him break out of prison."

Soos said, "You mean, that screwdriver from the Mystery Shack I found in my yard? Like, without that I wouldn't have ever gotten a job there."

Mabel said, "We must have you at the Shack, Soos! You helped us tons of times."

Dipper said, "It's like we already changed the past. That's a paradox."

"That's why it must have been the Time Baby who set it all up," said Bill.

"I think there may be a Future Mabel who has come back to help me," said Mabel. "Like, the pile of leaves and the leaf blower I used on the gnomes. Where did a big pile of fall leaves come from, at the beginning of the summer?"

"Maybe Soos left them there from last year?" asked Dipper.

"Dude, it wasn't me," said Soos.

Stan said, "This isn't getting us anywhere. Let's take direct action. Let's fly this thing and smash our way out of here!"

"That might just work!" said Ford.

"We need two people who are good at coordinating their moves in the two pilot seats," said Bill. "Twins would be best."

"You and me, Poindexter?" asked Stan.

"We don't communicate well enough," said Ford. "Not anymore."

"What about me and Dipper?" asked Mabel.

"You think we can do it?" asked Dipper.

"Sure!" said Mabel. "It'll be like playing a video game together."

* * *

Bill showed them how to operate the controls. "When it starts, the anti-gravity field will kick in. That will let us lift everything around us, out to the bubble."

"Hang on everyone," said Dipper. "This is when gravity really falls."

With an unearthly hum, the gigantic starship powered up. Scanning screens came online, showing their position, and a large person-sized shape just outside the bubble, highlighted in red.

"That must be the Time Baby!" said Dipper.

"Let's go get him," said Mabel. "We'll bounce this whole bubble off his head like a giant bouncy ball!"

"He may be tough, but we're using his own time bubble against him," said Stan.

The trajectory was wobbly at first, but Dipper and Mabel soon learned how to manage the steering. They lifted the bubble high, to gain speed, and brought it down on their enemy.

The Time Baby wobbled on his feet, but then returned the attack with beams blasting from his eyes.

"Maybe he'll break his own bubble for us," Bill said. "It would be a pleasure to disintegrate him again."

"You already did it once?" asked Dipper.

"Yeah. Somehow he got better," said Bill.

The beams had minimal far as the ship's sensors could detect. Then they saw the Baby bring his hands together, and their bubble was squeezed with much greater force."

"Our shields are failing!" Ford said, watching another monitor.

"Keep charging him," said Bill. "Knock him off balance and maybe we can stop the squeezing."

Dipper and Mabel kept the ship moving, battering the Baby from every side. Finally he toppled on his back. But the ship's shields gave out at the same moment and the hull groaned as crushing pressure was applied from every direction.

Then four gigantic new figures came charging in.

"What are those?" asked Mabel.

"They almost look like giant statues of famous presidents," said Dipper. "One looks like Abraham Lincoln."

"That's it!" said Mabel. "The Presidential Robots of Mount Rushmore have come when America needed them most!"

The enormous robotic figures charged the prone Time Baby and blasting it with high-intensity beams from their eyes. Weakened from the combat with the bubble, the Baby succumbed and went still.

The pressure around the ship ceased as the time bubble went down.

"We did it!" said Mabel, and everyone cheered.

"Thank you," said Bill. "Now I can continue conquering the world."

"Oh-oh," said Mabel and Dipper together.


	4. Combat

_The pressure around the ship ceased as the time bubble went down._

_"We did it!" said Mabel, and everyone cheered._

_"Thank you," said Bill. "Now I can continue conquering the world."_

_"Oh-oh," said Mabel and Dipper together._

"I knew you'd betray us!" said Stan. "Come on everyone, let's trash these monsters and take back the Falls!"

Stan's followers from the Mystery Shack resistance group rallied and squared off against Bill's goons in the large central space inside the alien ship.

"Go ahead and try," said Bill confidently. "This will be amusing to watch."

Stan charged 8-Ball, swinging his baseball bat. The monster swiped with his claws, but Stan dodged and struck him hard on the top of the head. 8-Ball's eyes rolled, each showing the message, "Ask again later" as the beast went down.

Pyronica shot out her sticky tongue at Wendy, intending to swallow the redhead. Wendy cut off the tongue with a mighty blow of her ax. Pyronica backed off, holding her hands to her mouth in pain.

Hectorgon came after Dipper, but Soos, Chutzpar the manotaur, and the Multi-Bear tackled him.

"I wanna eat someone," said Teeth, looking at Pacifica. "You'll do!"

"No I won't," said Pacifica.

She swung her golf club in a powerful arc, smashing his front dental features.

"My eye teeth!" said Teeth. "I can't see!"

Grenda and Candy grabbed opposite ends of the Amorphous Shape, and pulled.

Gnomes formed up into a huge assembly to attack Xanthar the Being Whose Name Must Never Be Said. Emboldened by this, more of the townspeople swarmed to the attack.

"Here's for giving bread a bad name!" shouted Tad Strange, tearing out a large chunk of the gigantic loaf.

"You guys are pathetic," said Bill. "I'd better step in and finish this."

"Enough!" said Mabel. She levitated and her eyes glowed. "I'm stopping you right now."

A bubble surrounded Bill. He tapped at it with one hand, and it rippled like the time bubble around the town had done.

"How are you doing that?" Dipper asked in astonishment.

"All the magic in Gravity Falls was caused by energy leaks from this wrecked ship," said Mabel. "Now that it's at full power, I can tap into it to do almost anything."

"But... how do you know how to do that?" asked Dipper.

"I'll explain later," said Mabel. "After we put Bill back through the Rift."

"You might want to reconsider that, Shooting Star," said Bill. "Look who I have as a hostage."

He turned and revealed he had a grip on Ford with the arm behind his back.

"No! Great-uncle Ford!" said Dipper.

"I can't let him free, or it's the end of the world," said Mabel. "But... our great-uncle..."

"It's up to you, Mabel," said Dipper. "I trust you."

"Please save me!" called Ford. "Drop the bubble and let me out!"

Dipper looked puzzled. "You've never talked like that before. You're always willing to sacrifice yourself for the world. And that means..."

"You're not really Great-uncle Ford!" said Mabel.

Ford morphed, revealing the Shape Shifter.

"What?" said Bill. "My hostage!"

"You ruined everything!" the Shifter snarled at Bill. "I was almost free."

"When did you take over from my brother?" asked Stan.

"That fool McGucket found my cryogenic chamber down in the Bunker. He thought it was Dipper frozen in there, so he unfroze me. I killed him and took his place. I joined the resistance, waiting for my opportunity for revenge on my old captor. I got my chance when he asked me to walk with him while he looked for Bill."

"You killed Great-uncle Ford!?" demanded Dipper.

I didn't completely kill him. I just knocked him out and left him to be crushed when we all went into the ship. Nobody noticed poor Old Man McGucket was missing in all the confusion."

"He's still out there!" said Mabel. "Maybe there's a chance..."

"I'll try the ship's scanners," said Dipper.

There was no sign of human life in the region around the ship (still held up by the anti-gravity fields), or in the crater where Gravity Falls had once been.

"He couldn't have survived all that pressure," said Dipper. "He's gone."

"Noo!" said Stan. "I can't lose Stanford. Not again."

Mabel said, "Shifter, for what you've done you can join Bill in the Nightmare Realm. That bubble should last thousands of years."

Bill snarled, "At least I have one victim left to play with in here."

"It won't be that easy," said the Shifter. He morphed into a copy of Bill. "I can copy all your powers."

The two equally-matched Bills began to fight inside the bubble.

"Let's get all the monsters where they belong," said Mabel.

They flew the ship up close to the Rift and Mabel pushed all of the invaders through. Using the amazing powers of the ship, she closed the Rift.

They gently replaced the ground and the town back into the crater, and turned off the anti-gravity field of the ship.

Everyone came out. They gasped as they found the town completely destroyed yet again. Everyone scattered to see what was left of their homes.

* * *

Dipper, Mabel, and Stan walked back to the Mystery Shack and found it in ruins.

"Can we rebuild it again?" asked Dipper.

"You bet we can," said Stan. "With all the tourists we'll get after this huge event, the money will be rolling in."

Stan went inside to survey the damages.

"Mabel, could you do something with your powers?" asked Dipper.

"I could try, but I would be reconstructing things from my own imagination," said Mabel. "It might come out looking like something from Mabeland."

"Never mind that, then," said Dipper. "But you were going to tell me how you did all this."

"Remember I told you about Future Mabel?" said Mabel. "I'm actually her. Your Mabel was temporarily displaced."

There was a pop, and a second Mabel stood beside the first.

"Hey, what happened?" said Mabel. "The last thing I remember was us all getting into the ship."

"Hi Mabel," said the other. "I'm Future Mabel, or I guess you could call me Lebam to avoid confusion."

"My name backwards? You really like that name?" asked Mabel.

"Not really. How about Googie instead?"

"Okay, Googie," said Mabel. "You know, I should be freaked out actually meeting you, but I had six Mabel clones for my jury in Mabeland, so one isn't so bad."

"Awkward clone hug?" asked Googie.

"Awkward clone hug," said Mabel.

They hugged each other and did the "Pat pat."

Googie said, "I need you for something."

"What?" asked Mabel.

"There are a whole set of parallel worlds like ours," said Googie. "Now that your world has been saved, you need to be the Future Mabel for the next one. I'll train you how to use the ship's power for time travel and stuff. Nanotechnology too, to make instant copies of sweaters from thin air."

"Sounds like fun," said Mabel.

Dipper said, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yeah, I've got to pay it forward, don't I?" said Mabel. "Especially since I'm responsible for the world nearly ending. The next me needs me."

"Don't worry, she won't be gone long," said Googie.

With a pop, they both vanished. In a second, Mabel was back.

"Real Mabel?" asked Dipper.

"Yep, I'm the real Mabel, bro-bro."

"How long were you gone, your time?" asked Dipper.

"About a week," said Mabel.

"You're a week older than me now?" asked Dipper. "Our birthdays are out of sync."

"I was so busy I forgot about my birthday," said Mabel. "I'll still celebrate it with you."

"It should be in three days," said Dipper. "I don't know if time passed normally in that Weirdmageddon bubble, but that lasted four days."

"We don't have time to plan much," said Mabel.

"And everything is a wreck," said Dipper.

"It'll be a sad birthday anyway, since we lost Great-uncle Ford," said Mabel.

"Yeah," said Dipper. "I miss him."

There was a thud in the distance, and a voice called, "Some help over here?"

They ran to the side of the Bottomless Pit, where a man lay on the ground.

"Great-uncle Ford!" Dipper cried. "You're all right!"

"More or less," said Ford. "The Shape Shifter hit me hard. However, he didn't know the metal plate in my head would protect me from the worst effects of a concussion. I couldn't make it to the ship, but I managed to get into the Bottomless Pit, which is a dimensional wormhole, not subject to outside crushing forces."

"Doesn't it just pop you back at the same time you went in?" Mabel asked.

"Not if you know how to control it," said Ford.

"We're so glad to have you back," said Dipper.

"We love you," said Mabel.

"I don't deserve it," said Ford. "I've done some thinking about how much all of this was my fault. I need to speak with my brother."

"Go on and talk with him," said Mabel. "He's somewhere back in the house."


	5. Birthday

"I think our grunkles need some time alone," said Mabel. "Wanna go see if the giant presidential robots are still out there?"

"Sure," said Dipper. "I want to thank the pilots."

They biked up to where they could get a good view out of the valley, and there were the robots standing in a row: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

The right eye of Roosevelt popped open like a door and Quentin Trembley peered out.

"Greetings, Congressman Mabel, and Roderick!" said Trembley. "We have defeated a formidable infant foe!"

"What happened to the Time Baby?" asked Mabel.

"Some agents from the future showed up and offered to take him off our hands," said Trembley.

"The Time Anomaly Removal Crew?" asked Dipper.

"The very ones," said Trembley.

"Oh no! They work for the Time Baby," said Dipper. "They're on his side."

Blendin Blandin appeared beside them, for once adjusting his camouflage suit with confidence.

"Not anymore," said Blendin (with little trace of a stutter). "The victory today gave us a future without the Time Baby in control, and we hope to keep it that way. See the new red logo on my time-travel device? It represents fighting the evil Time Baby. I'll be looking out for you guys, in your past."

"You're bald again," said Mabel. "What's up with that?"

"I lost the effect of your Globnar victory wish for me when the timeline changed," said Blendin. "I don't mind; it's worth it."

"Where's the Time Baby now?" asked Dipper.

"We sealed him back in the Antarctic ice," said Blendin.

"That could melt someday, you know," said Dipper.

"Please ask your great-uncle Ford to resume work on his perpetual motion machine, so that we can have a carbon-free energy source to prevent global warming. One of my missions in the old timeline, when I worked for the Time Baby, was to sabotage that machine."

"You did that? He thought his brother did it," said Mabel. "Now they can make up for sure."

"The only other Time Baby we need to worry about is the one that will reconstitute from atoms in a thousand years," said Blendin. "But technological advances from the research your great-uncle does on the working alien spacecraft will prepare humanity to defeat him, too."

"Magnificent," said Trembley. "Hopefully it will also enable us to defeat the giant man-eating spiders, and pancakes!"

"President Trembley, we want to thank you and your fellow giant presidential statue pilots for saving us," said Dipper.

"Certainly, my boy," said Trembley. "Come out, all of you identical fellows."

The right eyes of the other statues opened, and behind each one was an Old Man McGucket.

"Howdy, Dipper and Mabel," said the McGucket in Washington.

The McGuckets in Lincoln and Jefferson chorused, "Howdy."

Dipper and Mabel gasped in amazement.

"B-but... you're dead... the Shape Shifter killed you!" said Dipper.

"And now... there's three of you?" asked Mabel.

"Meet Left-Arm-Cast McGucket and No-Cast McGucket," said the Washington one. "And I'm the original in this dimension, Right-Arm-Cast McGucket."

"But... how?" asked Dipper.

"With all the weird energies of the alien ship, sometimes the boundaries between parallel worlds get thinned out," said No-Cast McGucket.

"'Specially around reflective surfaces," said Left-Arm-Cast McGucket. "Sometime mirror images come out funny, not reversed like they oughta be. And sometime parallel copies can even cross over."

"I told you I had a turf war with the hillbilly in my mirror," said Original McGucket. "You thought I was just bein' a crazy old coot, didn't ya?"

"I sure did," said Mabel.

"Me too," said Dipper.

"When my laptop countdown got low and gravity started goin' bonkers, I lit out of town, and so did a couple of my copies," said Original McGucket. "We ran into President Trembley here. We warned him about what was comin', and he got us to fix up these here robots."

"But another copy of you went down in the Bunker and got killed by the Shape Shifter," said Dipper.

"That must have been the extra-crazy one," said McGucket.

"You seem a lot less cuckoo than the last time we saw you," said Mabel. "All three of you do."

"My mind's been comin' back, all righty," said No-Cast McGucket. "I only see purple-spotted trolls on Tuesdays and Thursdays now."

"That's progress," said Dipper.

"Now we must hurry off and replace these figures at Mt. Rushmore," said Trembley. "Come along, men."

"Bye, President Trembley," said Mabel. "Bye, McGuckets!"

"At least one of you should come back and see Great-uncle Ford," said Dipper. "He'd be glad to work with you again, I bet."

"One more thing," said Trembley. "Here's an official presidential pardon for all crimes, for your Great-Uncle Stan, for his heroic actions in saving the world."

With the statue's enormous hand he handed Dipper a piece of paper.

"Thanks," said Dipper. "I know he could use it."

* * *

Their thirteenth birthday party three days later was on the grounds of Mystery Shack after all. The high school gym was in ruins.

Shermie, Stan, and Ford were all there.

"I have to return to the East Coast and pick up my life again," said Shermie. "It seems I've been declared legally dead. I called some members of the Royal Order and they're going to help."

"I guess your marriage with Waddles will have to be annulled," said Mabel. "Since you're not Gompers anymore."

"You're certainly correct about that," said Shermie with an embarrassed cough.

"The Royal Society wants me to keep the Mystery Shack open, right Shermie?" asked Stan.

"Yes, it serves a valuable purpose in making people think the real weirdness of Gravity Falls is a fake," said Shermie.

"I'll let you keep it open," said Ford. "In your own name, not mine."

"Since I've been pardoned I can use it again," said Stan. "Yes! In your face, law enforcement."

"I'll have plenty to do with investigating the fully-operational alien ship," said Ford. "I'll spend most of my time there."

"Don't forget to come out and have fun with your brother some times," said Mabel. "That's what twins are for."

"I know, I'm working on being more human and less brain," said Ford.

"Good," said Mabel. "Here's a party horn for you."

Ford tooted it, and smiled.

Candy arrived. "With all the mess, my parents did not send me to music camp this year after all. Happy birthday!"

"What about Grenda?" asked Mabel.

"Here I am!" called Grenda, arriving with Marius von Fundshauser.

"Vhen I heard my darling's home town was destroyed, I had to come and help," said Marius. "I vill donate much money to rebuild the town, and rename it Grendaville."

Grenda said, "That's sweet of you, but it's going to stay Gravity Falls."

"But darling..." said Marius.

"Drop it, Marius," ordered Grenda.

"Yes, dear," said Marius.

"Pacifica, good to see you!" said Dipper, turning a bit pink.

Pacifica was wearing a nicer dress than the fighting rags she wore in the resistance, but nothing glamorous.

"How are things going on the home front?" asked Dipper. "Are your parents all right?"

"There's bad news about my mother," said Pacifica. "She ran back to the mansion and locked herself in the Panic Room, but it wasn't safe the weirdness. She was attacked and killed when a silver tray of finger sandwiches came to life."

"Oh no!" said Mabel. "I'm sorry to hear that. How about your dad?"

"I helped him survive the Weirdocalypse, but..."

Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland came up.

"Preston Northwest's face was fixed by Bill as part of the damage restoration," said Blubs. "But we had to arrest him as a traitor to humanity. He's in jail."

"The Sheriff and I are getting married," Durland blurted out.

"Wow, congratulations!" said Mabel, and Dipper seconded it.

"Yep, after almost losing Durland, I had to pop the question as soon as I got him back," said Blubs.

"It's so wonderful. And we're going to adopt Pacifica," said Durland.

"I'm cool with that," said Pacifica. "It'll be nice to be part of an common, ordinary family after all this."

After Pacifica wandered off to check out the party, Mabel asked Dipper, "So, how do you feel about Pacifica? And how about Wendy?"

Dipper said, "I'm completely over Wendy after that horrible thing with her fake copy in Mabeland. As for Pacifica, we're just friends."

Mabel said, "I'm putting Pacifica on the top of your rebound romance list now."

"I don't need romance in my life right now," said Dipper, blushing.

"You're lucky," said Mabel with a sigh. "I never found my epic summer romance."

A young man in a green shirt came up to her.

"You work at the Mystery Shack, right? I think you were the one who dropped this survey for me to pick up."

He handed Mabel a survey that said "Do you like me? Yes, Definitely, Absolutely."

"Oh!" said Mabel. "Maybe... why?"

The boy pulled out a pencil and checked all three boxes. "I was too shy to say anything then, but after seeing you save the town, I'd really like to get to know you. I'm Reuben."

"I'm Mabel. I have to leave for California on the bus this evening, but... I'll give you my Spype address so we can video chat!"

"'I'd like that," said Reuben.

"You were in my Visions of Heartbreak Past, and in Mabeland, too," said Mabel. "So I know this will be perfect!"

"I don't know what that means," said Reuben, looking a little wary.

"Never mind, just some adventurey stuff that happened this summer. I'll tell you all about it in chat sometime," said Mabel.

"Okay," said Reuben, smiling.

* * *

After the party, Dipper and Mabel went to the bus stop. Most of the town was there to see them off.

Wendy and Soos gave them hugs. Dipper whispered his real name to Wendy, and she laughed.

Soos cried. "I'll miss you so much, dudes."

The grunkles and grandfather also hugged them.

"Keep it real," said Stan, blinking tears from his own eyes.

"You're doing the right thing, Dipper," said Ford. "Don't leave childhood behind yet. I'm sorry I tried to pull you away from your sister. Maybe in a few years..."

"We'll see," said Dipper.

The bus arrived, and Mabel started moving her stuff on.

"Mabel, what's that big cardboard box with legs sticking out of it?" Dipper asked.

"Nothing," said Mabel.

"There's no way that our folks will let you keep Waddles at home, you know," said Dipper. "He'll end up on some farm with strangers."

"Let me take care of him for you," said Stan. "After risking my life to save him from a pterodactyl, you know I'll do a good job."

Mabel hung her head sadly, and handed over the box. "Goodbye, BFF. I'll be back."

Waddles oinked sadly.

* * *

Mabel was sitting on the seat to the right of her brother, looking out the back window at everyone.

"There's so much more I want to know about Gravity Falls," said Dipper. "Like what McGucket said about parallel worlds."

"There are parallel worlds," said Mabel. "I've been to one as Googie."

"But the thing about jumping back and forth between them, maybe even without realizing it... Doesn't it seem to you, sometimes, like there are subtle details that change from moment to moment? Maybe there are parallel worlds going on. Mabel and Lebam. Dipper and Reppid."

Mabel was sitting on the seat to the left of her brother, looking out the back window at everyone.

"Goodbye, Gravity Falls," she said.

"Goodbye, Gravity Falls," said Dipper.


End file.
